AT A LOSS
The Eastern men’s soccer team lost to Northern Kentucky Wednesday for its eighth-straight loss. PAGE 8
YELL LIKE HELL
The Homecoming pep rally, Yell Like Hell, will feature student performances. PAGE 3
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D aily E astern N ews
Thursday, October 22, 2015 “TELL THE TRUTH AND DON’T BE AFRAID” C E L E BRATI NG A CE NTUR Y OF COV E RA GE 19 15- 201 5
VOL. 100 | NO. 43 W W W . D A I L YE A S TE R N N E W S . C O M
Victim of home invasion speaks out, offers advice By Stephanie Markham Editor-in-Chief | @stephm202 Forced to sit with his head down in his bathtub, Ian Thompson was instructed by the armed, masked intruders in his apartment to count to 100. “I was worried they were going shoot me the moment I said 100,” Thompson said, referring to the robbery and home invasion he was victim of last Friday. Thompson, a junior family and consumer sciences major who recently transferred to Eastern, resides at 1429 Seventh St., but said he is soon moving into a new building—one that is equipped with security cameras. Thompson said he was alone in his apartment
“When this whole thing started, I thought this was like a nightmare; it wasn’t real.” - Ian Thompson, junior family and consumer sciences major with the door unlocked when the intruders entered wearing masks and hoodies, pointed a gun to his face and placed a bag over his head. It was 10 a.m. “I was able to stay calm for the majority of
it,” he said. “When this whole thing started, I thought this was like a nightmare; it wasn’t real.” Thompson had just returned from dropping his roommate off at the Mattoon train station. He sat down for about 10 minutes before the ordeal began. The two intruders initially lead Thompson into his bedroom where he pleaded with them not to take his laptop, which contained personal information and classwork, he said. Then they knocked him down by striking the back of his head and pulled the gun on him yet again as he stood up, Thompson said. “He yanks the laptop off the table and he hands it to me; then he shoves me into the closet,” Thompson said. “After a few minutes of rummaging through my stuff and taking things, he
has me move into the bathroom.” Thompson was not shot when he reached 100. Rather, the intruders were gone from his home—as were his van, wallet, cellphone, TV, media player and headphones, he said. Thompson immediately ran to a neighbor who consoled him and phoned the police. “When it was over, I didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “I was discombobulated, and I was confused and I was upset; obviously my sense of security was just shattered.” Despite the intruders’ masks, Thompson had descriptions to offer the police; he said he had just invited them over to his apartment the night before.
INVASION, page 6
CAA to add items to agenda By Cassie Buchman Administration Editor | @cjbuchman The Council on Academic Affairs will add a new course and course revision to next week’s agenda at their meeting Thursday. The revised course is MUS 4980 A, B, D: Workshop in Music I, II, III and the new course is HIS 3950 History of U.S. Popular Culture. MUS 4980 is being revised to add an online component. Marita Gronnvoll, chair of the CAA, said they were going to become a hybrid course, with some online and some face-to-face parts. One of the executive actions for tomorrow is to add a cultural diversity designation to PHI 2590G Introduction to Ethics Honors and RLS 1290G Introduction to Religious Studies Honors. “They have always included cultural diversity in the course, but now they just want to be recognized,” Gronnvoll said. The cultural diversity component will be added in the course catalogue. There will be no changes in their own classes. “They do stuff in religious beliefs, cultural beliefs, values,” Gronnvoll said. “Racism, sexism stuff like that.” These courses will be voted on next week. The other executive action is to remove the writing intensive designation from MAR 4100. MAR 4100 is a special topics course. A memorandum from Dean Mayhar Izadi said special topics courses offer a variety and diverse coverage of topics, some of which do not lend themselves to a ‘writing intensive’ designation. Writing intensive classes focus 30 to 35 percent of the class on writing, and students need to be able to revise at least one paper. “That’s pretty easy,” Gronnvoll said. “They’re just trying to make the course more honest, that this is the way the course is taught, it isn’t writing intensive, it doesn’t make sense for it to be labeled writing intensive.” Gronnvoll said it would sometimes be writing intensive, and other times it would not be, so they decided to get rid of the term altogether. James Ochwa-Echel, associate professor and director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Global Diversity and Coordinator of the Africana Studies Program, will be coming to the CAA meeting to give the program review for the Bachelor of Arts in Africana studies.
CAA, page 6
PHOTO ILLUSTR ATION BY CHYNNA MILLER | THE DAILY EASTERN NE WS
Three Dog Night lead singer dies By Luis Martinez Entertainment Editor | @DEN_News
Cory Wells, one the three lead singers for the band Three Dog Night, passed away Tuesday. Wells developed severe back pain in September, so much so that the band canceled some of their tour dates, including a scheduled performance at Eastern for Family Week-
end. Ceci Brinker, the director of student life, said she was saddened to hear the news of Wells passing. “Your heart goes out to the lead singer’s family and friends, and members of the band,” Brinker said. “It’s sad to hear, but it sounded like there was some ongoing health issues with (Wells) and it sounds like the best thing they could have done was take the time
Student Senate approves bylaw change, RSO By Analicia Haynes Staff Reporter | @DEN_News The Student Senate voted on a bylaw change to the attendance policy and re-approved Colleges Against Cancer as a Registered Student Organization Wednesday evening. Before the discussion for the bylaw change began, Maralea Negron, the Student Senate Speaker, clarified the original attendance bylaw. Negron said according to the bylaw prior to the vote, after an accumulation of two absences the senator in question would be removed from office. “(The attendance bylaw) sounds harsh,” Negron said. “That’s why I want this change to be
approved.” Negron said that it is not fair to the senators if they are kicked off of senate after two absences especially if the senator has a valid excuse. Negron also said the repeal process is necessary because there is no reason why having a valid excuse such as an illness or family emergency should get you kicked off of the senate. The change calls for up to three excused absences and the opportunity for senators to repeal an absence, only if that senator has a valid excuse. “If it’s something like ‘oh I have a project’ and every excuse after that is ‘oh I have a project, oh I have a project’ then your repeal will be denied,” Negron said. SENATE, page 6
off.” According to the band’s website, Wells passed away in Durkirk, N.Y., and is survived by his wife of 50 years, Mary, his daughters, Coryann Wells and Dawn Marie Cussins, and his five grandchildren. Luis Martinez can be reached at 581-2812 or lpmartinez@eiu.edu.
EDGAR SERIES MEET AND GREET
David Yepsen, the director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois UniversityCarbondale, will be present for an informal meeting with interested faculty and students at 3 p.m. Thursday in the Edgar Room of the Booth Library.
LEC TURE
Yepsen will discuss the presidential election campaigns and the upcoming Iowa Caucuses at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Buzzard Hall Auditorium.